Babati man to hang over 1,500/- debt!

A RESIDENT of Babati District in Manyara Region, Paulo Gadye, is to be hanged to death for killing his uncle, Patrice Mathias Akonay, to avoid payment of 1,500/- debt.

This follows the decision by the Contesting a judgement by the High Court on February 13, last year. Justices Ibrahim Juma and Augustine Mwarija ruled, “In the net result, this appeal has no merit and we order that it be and is hereby dismissed.”

After reading and evaluating the evidence of the three main prosecution witnesses, including the appellant’s wife, the justices found nothing to justify any interference with the way the trial judge assessed their credibility. “These prosecution eye witnesses gave a coherent and mutually supportive account of what they actually witnessed.

Their evidence was consistent even under cross examination,” they said. According to the justices, apart from establishing that it was the appellant who caused the death of the deceased, the evidence of the eye witnesses also established malice aforethought. “The object the appellant used, a hoe, to attack the deceased directing it at the head, which is a delicate part of the body manifested an intention to kill,” they said.They went on, “The appellant knew what he had done was wrong. He threatened his wife with dire consequences should she raise an alarm.

He took advantage of the cover of darkness to transfer the body of the deceased to the river where he dumped it.” It was alleged during the trial that on October 8, 2010 at around 9.00am, at Hewasi village in Babati District, the deceased paid a visit at the appellant’s household.

He was following up on the appellant to pay him 1,500/-, which was due to him after uprooting a tree stump. The appellant was not at home.

The deceased promised the appellant’s wife that he would return later. The appellant was at home when the deceased returned for a second time that day to demand his payment.

There was a brief exchange of words outside with the appellant explaining that he did not have the money. The appellant then picked his hoe and asked the deceased to join him inside the house.

It was when the deceased had sat down on a chair when the appellant struck him on his forehead and later at back of his head, felling him down.

The appellant’s wife and his two children testified to have witnessed how the appellant hit the deceased with the hoe. After the deceased had been hit, the appellant threatened his wife that he would slash her with a machete should she raise any alarm. The appellant then sent his children away to his son’s homestead.

In the evening, the appellant with the assistance of two people carried the body of the deceased from the house. The body of the deceased was later discovered in Hewasi River where it had been thrown.

/Daily News.